Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 2)

5th March 2017, Sunday

Shibuya

Today, we woke up @ 8 am and met up at the hotel lobby. My friends were bringing me to Shibuya to try Ichiran Ramen for breakfast. So we took the JR Line down to Shibuya, most of the shops were not opened yet. When we reached Ichiran ramen resturant, we were greeted with a self-ordering machine where we ordered 3 bowls of ramen from it. After which, we went in to find our seats. The interior was partitioned to cater for individual seating, however, the wooden partition can be folded away. And the staff will serve the ramen through the front window, you can also see the opposite row of table. When the ramen was served, the staff drew down the curtain so that the diners can enjoy the ramen with no disturbance.

The ramen was niceeee!!....the soup was with so much flavor and it combined very well with fresh green onion. You can also choose to add more noodles, green or white spring onion and with chilli. We had a very nice breakfast, after that, we went separate ways as i needed to travel to another place to buy origami books for my brother while my friends went shopping on their own. However, we had arranged to meet up again in Sunshine City to go to Pokemon Centre during lunchtime. I reached Hakusan station at about 10 plus and saw a small shop selling coffee beans, but not able to make out the flavors of the coffee beans as the signs were writing in Japanese....kekee...
Managed to buy the books and proceeded to meet my friends for lunch. However, they needed more time to shop. So i headed first to Ikebukuro and went there to see see look look while waiting for them to arrive.

Fruits

Mini Cakes

More mini cakes....

There were many beautiful cakes and chocolates in one of the major shopping mall when i arrived at Ikebukuro station. It appeared they were selling to prepare for their white day, which was on 14th March. All the cakes and chocolates look so tasty from their displays, there were many people shopping too. It took me some time to figure out how to exit from the correct exit, plus, it was crowded too. Finally, i managed to exit out from the station and got up to the street level. I then made my way slowly to Sunshine City, bought my new jacket with Mickey Mouse design for $54 sgd at the biggest uniqlo store there. It was 6-storey high and with alot of varieties to choose from. Along the Sunshine City walking street, there were many shops such as cinema, gaming arcade, uniqlo, food restaurants and bowling centre. There were many youngsters shopping there too.

Largest Uniqlo Building

Shopped around the different shops there and was so hungry. By the time i met up with them, it was almost 2 pm. Then we walked around the shopping area nearest to the station and ended up in Coco Curry House. It was not so crowded, probably it was over lunch time. Don't find the curry rice nice to eat. After eating, we made our way to Pokemon Centre, which was located in Sunshine City. The store was quite big, but it was SUPER crowded. There were some statues of the different pokemons and many stuffs that you can buy (Warning: The toys are super cute and you will want to buy them all... :P ). There were gashapon machines located at the entrance of the shop too. I managed to buy two can badges as it was too crowded to be able to see the stuffs slowly too.

Charizard

Mew

After that, we headed down to Harajuku area. But when we arrived there, it was crowded too. We weren't sure which direction to walk, so we just choose Meji Shrine to visit as it looked like it was walkable distance away. However, after we started to walk in the direction, we saw a super busy street (Takeshita Street) on the opposite side. So we headed towards the busy street to explore and it was really crowded. The shops were mostly for younger generation and there were multiple of crepes shops around too. We saw some people buying a giant size candy floss with multiple colours, it was interesting. We wanted to buy one too, however, the queue was so long until a queue number was required and had to come back after like 1 or 2 hours later. So we walked further down the streets to explore other shops. We went in to Calbee snacks house, it was two-storey high and bought 2 different flavors (Spicy and Chocolate) to try. One was too sweet and the other was too salty...hahaha....

Entrance

Calbee Spicy & Chocolate Chips

Brown's room

Croquant Chou Zakuzaku

After which, we continued to walk to the end of the streets where the big brand buildings (like Nike, Line, Forever 21) were located.We went over to check the Line building opposite the street. There was a giant Brown statue where you can take photo with. There were snacks with Corny, Brown, the yellow duck printed and there was a small showroom for Brown's bedroom. After that, we made our way back to Akihabara for dinner. We tried a nutty cream biscuits along the way, it was coated with chocolate and nuts and long-shaped. It had milky cream as the fitting.

Sushi Set

Fried Ebi

We went to eat in Ginzo Restaurant for sushi when we arrived at Akihabara and ordered a sushi set for sharing. The dinner was not bad and we made our way back to the hotel as it was getting late. We also bought a baked sweet potato at the 7-11 shop near our hotel. It was hot and soft, nice to eat in cold weather. It was then sleeping time....

Tomorrow will be another adventure in kyoto.... "Soba Soba, here i come!"

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel Kodenmacho-Ekimae

Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 1)

4th March 2017, Saturday

Finally planned to go for a short trip to Japan again and this time, i am traveling with two of my friends. Today is the day to fly off, away from work and study!!!

Woke up @ 5 am and got ready to go to the airport. My friends had arrived first at the airport and checked in their luggage when i was on the way (Purposely don't want to wait for me to check in together... :P). There were a lot of self-checking in kiosks and self-printing of luggage tags & boarding pass at the SQ counters. I went ahead to check in my luggage and we went in. While i looking for breakfast, the 2 of them were buying their makeup stuffs. We had our breakfast there after shopping. I had a doughnut and hot chocolate drink. After that, we walked towards to the gate and waited to board the plane. I got a different seat with my friends, so we were seating separately on the plane. And it's time to fly!!

Arrived @ Tokyo

Watched some movies during the flight and we landed in Tokyo at 3.15 pm (Jap time). It took a while for luggage collection, we tried to figure out the way to our hotel. We had to change 2 times on the train route to go to the hotel. We had to carry our luggage up the stairs when we cannot figure out where was the lift. My friends were having a bit of trouble to carry their luggage up as one of it was weighing 22 kg. By the time we reached the street level, we were panting....hohohoho.....By the time we finally arrived at the hotel, it was already almost 6 pm. Our rooms were on different levels too as i was taking the single room while my friends were taking double room. After check-in, we all went up to our own rooms.

My Room

The interior was quite the same as the one i stayed during my last trip in Tokyo. Didn't expect the single room to have a double bed too, when i went to check out the double room, my friends were also sharing the double bed and the size of the room was the same as the single room...and i got the whole bed to myself in my room....hahahaaa).

After settling down, we went to Akihabara for dinner. It was a stop away from our hotel and the sky had already turned dark, We went up to a building named Chomp Chomp to find some nice shabu shabu. But when we went up to the indicated level, there were two different restaurants, each on left and right side. We chose one restaurant (which was on the left side), named Akane No Niwa, and went in to try. The tables were placed inside separate small individual rooms and there was a strong cigarette smell too. We ordered a plate of gyoza as our starters and ordered a seafood hotpot. Thought we can order 2 different hotpots to try but was told by the staff it was required to order 2 of the same soup base.

Yummy!!

Seafood Hot Pot

The gyoza were yummy and there was a nice sweet sauce that came with it.The skin wasn't thick too.
It was so nice that we ordered 2 more plates of it. When the hotpot came, it was big and had quite a lot of seafood, including crabs. However, we don't find the hotpot was as yummy as the gyoza. It was quite disappointing though. After we finished our dinner, we had a bit problem to communicate to the staff to get us our bill. Cos we were trying to tell her "Bill", she kept thinking it as "Beer"......hahaha..
Finally, she got what we meant and got us our bill, which we paid at the counter.

Drinks from Gundam Cafe

After dinner, we walked around the anime streets and went to find the Gundam Cafe too. But we walked in the wrong direction and ended up walking in circle. Anyway, we managed to find it and queued to have some snacks. There were more characters designs for the drinks and we all ordered different drinks. I also ordered some fries as i was getting hungry again...hahaha....By the time we finished, it was almost to 10 pm and we took the train back to the hotel to rest.

It was soooo cold....

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel Kodenmacho-Ekimae

Akihabara 秋葉原, Japan Trip (Day 2)

28th December 2014, Sunday

Breakfast Bento Set

Today, we are going to Akihabara, a shopping street famous for its electrical and anime stuffs. So we woke up early and got ready to make our way there. We stopped by a small food place called 松屋, where we bought a bento set as breakfast using the coupon machine..Still it took us a while to try to match the names with the pictures and trying to figure out what can be topped up with...heheee...Luckily there wasn't much people around (only like 2 persons dining in)....After we got our coupon, we went up to the staff and gave her the coupon...We waited for a little while and our bento set was served...and it was nice to eat...hehee...we just shared that 1 set and after eating, we walked to the subway station - Kojimachi Station which was a short distance from the hotel. There was a sign on the staircase indicated we were 31 m above sea level too...We took the subway to Yurakucho Station, where we need to transfer to the JR line to go to Akihabara. When we came out from Yurakucho station (subway) exit, BIC Camera entrance was just beside it. Bic Camera Inc is a consumer electronics retailer chain in Japan and you can see it anywhere in Japan. And the prices are all tax exemption, which means it could be really cheap. Anyway, i had checked online this is the place where you can buy data sim cards too.

Cameras

Camera Lens

Fuji Films

So we went in to take a look, there were at least 6 or 7 levels in the whole building. We were at basement 2, where all the camera and accessories are placed...They even sells those films for very old cameras. We checked with 1 of the staffs on the data cards, he directed us to go up to level 1. We saw Y! Mobile service provider, and we also saw ipads, iphones, macbooks, etc which were cheap without the taxes....We asked one of the staff on where the data cards are located...then we went to see it..it was a different data sim card (not my friend had checked online). The staff was saying it was popular with tourists, it was a 14 days 1 GB data card for around $3900 yen. The staff doesn't know how to speak English, ended up the whole conversation with him was through google translation on his phone when we tried to ask him about the data sim card. Anyway my friend doesn't want to get it cos she not sure whether the speed will be fast enough for us to google the places. So we went off to the JR Yamaonote Line, we took exit 7 and walked up to the street level. The entrance for the JR line is on the right side and there was a small lottery shop...Once again, we walked up and bought a Loto 7 ticket for 9th Jan 2015 draw...heheee....7 numbers for $300 yen...After buying the ticket, we went to take the JR line.

Gashapon Machines

Kuroko no Basuke Figurines

Gundam Wing Models

Gundam Seed Models

It was roughly 4 stops away from JR Yurakucho station, and when we exited out from JR Akihabara station, there were a lot of gashapon machines placed there. And of course, i got stuck there...went to see what was cute there and played one of it for fun...Finally able to pull myself away and we went up to the street level. It was 'WOW' when i stood outside...there were so many people and many buildings with alot of anime posters and best of all, the roads was closed there. So we just turned to 1 direction and started to walk and explore the area...It was really big, 1 whole day is really not enough to walk if you are an anime lover or electrical lover. Of course, saw my favorite Gundam and Gaogaigar toys and of course, we were also digging the different prices of iPads....There was this small shop selling iPad Air 2 128 gb with cellular for $87,000 yen. So far, this is the only shop that sells iPads with cellular, the rest of the shops we went, even BIC Camera, they only allow us to buy wifi sets. But we just continued on walking first, and went across the street for toilet break in Starbucks and to use their free wifi....wanted to compare prices in Apple Store in SG...  :P

Kanda Myojin Shrine

After that, we continued walking ...werid thing is we like had walked for 2 hours or so, we were still quite near to the train station, which mean we didn't walk very far away....lol....We crossed over to Yodobashi Camera building and went into a small pastry cafe to have some breads and hot cocoa. And my friend kept pestered me on the different prices on the iPads, until i got really pissed off with it...Whole day like checking on iPad prices....Anyway, think she also noticed my frustration, so after eating the breads, we walked to the nearby shrine - Kanda Myojin Shrine, which was a straight road down from Akihabara. We reached the shrine around 3 plus, and there was some blessing ceremony going on. We washed our hands and mouth with the spring water at the side and then went in to explore the place. Don't really understand what was the ceremony about too...we stayed there for half an hour or so, they sells charm stickers to stick on credit cards, phones and computers...it was abit different from the usual charms which is put in a embroidered cloth bag. There was a little pony there too, no sure what it is doing there. After which, we left the shrine and walked back to Akihabara.

Spicy Ramen

Normal Ramen

Along the way, we stopped by some electrical shops and gashapon shops (cannot resist going in to play)...at the same time, we started looking food for our dinner. We also stopped at an Apple store when we passed by along the way. My friend checked out the prices for the iPad and was asking the staff for some extra information. The guy was telling us that we can't buy wifi+cellular sets cos it will need to be tied to a service provider in Japan (Even in BIC Camera, they don't sell wifi+cellular sets to tourists too). The guy was somehow questioning my friend asking her why she don't want to write down when she got him to repeat twice on where are the Apple stores branches in Tokyo and somehow we can see him abit getting impatient with us. So we left the shop without buying. Then we came into small alleys with mini electrical shops and my friend recongized 1 shop that she came before the first time she visited Tokyo. We wanted to eat there, but there was no English menu or pictures for us to pattern matching and it seems like the place was only selling beef ramen. So we went to the ramen shop opposite it and bought 2 different types of soup based ramens. Mine was spicy and my friend's one was neutral. Mine was too spicy for me to take it...while my friend was eating her ramen happily. We even got to pick a toy from the shop after paying for our meal. We both chose Winnie The Pooh magnets....hehehee...After which, we went walking again...went in arcade too, with those UFO catching machines...got 2 or 3 levels in a building with all these machines. We saw in 1 shop with a notice there is free wi-fi for tourists, so my friend went up to the staff and asked for a free wifi card but the staff told us we need to go the other building opposite the street to activate it (cos the wifi access point is searchable in the other shop). After activating the wifi account there, we just walked in the building to see what they were selling. We noticed Logitech is called Logicool there (not sure is it the same or its some other brand but the logic and packaging look exactly the same...lol).

Logicool Mouse

After which, we went into Yodobashi Camera building to try look for data sim cards. The staff also brought us to the popular tourist data card, which my friend doesn't want it and beside it, there were other many different data sim cards from different providers (even choosing a data card can be sooo confusing)....There were 14 days, 30days, 1 GB or 2GB or 3GB ones. Anyway we can't decide on which one to get too and the staff was entertaining 1 customer, when we tried to ask him question again, he just told us to wait until he is done with the current customer. And we waited, but he didn't get back to us even after entertaining the customer, which in the end we left without buying it...We stood there to wait for him for at least 15 mins (so give up). Then we went to Tower Records, where i bought 2 albums for my brother (from his idol). And then we walked for a little more and we went back to take the metro. There was vomit on the floor on the train, we jumped to avoid it. One guy wasn't so lucky...he had run to dash in the train and he stepped on the vomit and fell onto it....ekkk...really bad luck for him...and when the door closed, there was also vomit on the door (someone must be really drunk)...After we alighted from the metro, we forgot which exit did we came from this morning, so we were guessing on one of the exits. In the end, we walked on the streets...towards the wrong way and even walked until to the next metro station....hahahaa....From there, we took the metro back to our station again and went out from the correct exit and finally reached the hotel safe and sound.


Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho